1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric current conductive composition and to a process for recording an image by passing an electric current using the electric current conductive composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electric current conductive composition comprising a substantially electrically insulating binder containing therein at least one of benzotriazole or a benzotriazole derivative, and, to an image recording process which comprises passing an image-wise pattern of an electric current in an image recording element comprising a support having thereon a layer of the electric current conductive composition, as an image recording layer, comprising a substantially electrically insulating binder containing therein at least one of benzotriazole or a benzotriazole derivative and a reducible metal compound wherein latent images are formed in the above-described image recording layer, and then dry processing the element to produce a visual image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, a large amount of research has been directed toward the development of new compositions for image recording by passing an electric current through an image recording composition as well as on image recording processes, and toward improvements thereof.
It is known that images can be formed in certain recording materials by passing an electric current therethrough and various investigations have been made in this regard. For instance, a report thereon is described in K. S. Lion et al., "Investigation in the Field of Image Intensification, Final Report", Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories AFCRL, pages 64-133 (1964), Contract No. AF 19(605)-5704. This process uses a conventional light-sensitive photographic emulsion which is positioned adjacent a photoconductive layer. While this process offers advantages in the form of increased sensitivity, it possesses the disadvantages, associated with the use of a conventional photographic emulsion, that wet processing is required.
Another approach to the production of visible images is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,547. This process involves electrically reducing a light-insensitive electric charge sensitive layer, wherein a specific metal compound in a dry state is reduced by passing an electric current therethrough to produce an image. A drawback of the recording process described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,547 is that no amplification is possible with this image recording system.
Still another recording technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,798,959 and 2,798,960. This technique involves heating a photoconductive material by passing an electric current therethrough to color a heat sensitive material which is positioned adjacent the photoconductive material. In this case, amplification is also difficult.
An image recording process which incorporates an amplification system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,916. According to this process, physically developable nuclei (which may not be rendered visible) are formed through a relatively minute current flow which is generated by a photoconductor, and physical development is subsequently conducted in a processing solution. However, this process requires a wet processing and additionally requires a fixing.
Therefore, it is extremely preferred for latent images to be formed in a specific layer by passing an imagewise pattern of a relatively minute current flow in the specific layer and for these latent images to be then amplified by dry processing to produce a visual image.
One of the preferred techniques mentioned above is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 63621/76 (which corresponds to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 492,814, filed July 29, 1974). This process involves passing an image-wise pattern of electric charges through a heat developable light-sensitive material in a strong electric field to produce a latent image and then uniformly heating the light-sensitive material to produce a visual image. This process, however, requires a voltage of several kilovolts in order to pass electric charges through the substantially electrically insulating image forming layer, and further requires electric charge exposure for forming the latent image.